This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

There’s a limit to how much the mayor of Toronto can do to boost the local economy and create jobs for city residents, economists say.

From the boom in condo construction to the demise of local manufacturing, the biggest factors influencing Toronto’s economy are all beyond city hall’s control.

That includes interest rates, the value of the Canadian dollar and the state of the global economy, says Jane McIntyre, an economist with the Conference Board of Canada.

Similarly, a report by KPMG that ranked Toronto the most tax competitive major international city in the world credited policies determined by federal and provincial governments, not local politicians.

Municipal policies can have some impact on a city’s economic performance, economists acknowledge. Property taxes, development policies and marketing efforts can all help or hurt a city’s underlying economic strength.

But there’s another complication for a city like Toronto when it comes to creating jobs for local residents.

As part of the wider Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area, Toronto attracts 400,000 people a day from outside the city who fill jobs created here. At the same time, some 200,000 Toronto residents commute out of the city daily to work in neighbouring municipalities.

Thus, a new job in Toronto isn’t always filled by someone who lives and votes in the city.

In fact, Toronto’s unemployment rate is higher than the surrounding suburbs. The jobless rate hit 10 per cent in August, according to the city’s economic development department, based on the seasonally adjusted three-month moving average.

The reasons for the higher rate are unclear. Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, says it could be due to the fact Toronto is a magnet for young people and new immigrants, who typically take longer to land their first job.

With all that in mind, here’s what the three front-running mayoral candidates are saying about the state of employment in the city and what they would to do as mayor to improve Toronto’s job-creation performance.

JOHN TORY

To tackle youth unemployment, he would double the number of companies involved in PAYE — Partnership to Advance Youth Employment — a joint city-private sector program that links disadvantaged youth with employers. He said it would result in “thousands” of new jobs for youth in his first term.

Cut red tape at city hall. “We need to attract good jobs and provide opportunities for businesses to flourish across our city, not just downtown,” said Tory.

Link jobs to transit. For example, encourage high-tech businesses to locate along the new subway route between York University and Humber River Regional Hospital.

In Scarborough, encourage new businesses to locate along the new subway line by offering them a 10 per cent break on their property taxes.

He would champion private development proposals that create jobs, including the proposed Downsview Park Aerospace Campus and the proposed massive office tower complex on the site of the former Unilever Canada plant east of the Don River.

Fact check:Tory claims 83,000 young people are unemployed in Toronto. The figure, which comes from a CivicAction report on youth unemployment, is for all of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. The actual number of unemployed youth in the city of Toronto in August 2014, was lower — at 37,239, according to the city’s economic development department.

OLIVIA CHOW

<bullet>Require companies with big city contracts to hire and train young people, as was done at the Vancouver Olympics and Toronto’s Regent Park redevelopment project.

<bullet>Make apprenticeships and jobs for young people a key part of Toronto’s $18.6-billion 10-year capital budget, which council approved Jan. 30, 2014.

<bullet>Hire young people directly to work on her proposed after-school recreation and tree-planting programs.

<bullet>Over four years, create 5,000 new apprenticeships and jobs for young people — almost double the number now.

Fact check: Chow says one in five youth are jobless in Toronto and the actual figure for youth unemployment in the city of Toronto was 19.7 per cent in August 2014, according to the city’s economic development department.

DOUG FORD

Ford is running on the Ford brothers’ record over the past four years, while Doug has been councillor for Ward 2 and Rob has been the mayor. On his campaign website, says together they created 58,000 jobs over the past four years, grew the city’s economy by 12 per cent and broke tourism records for the past three years.

He commits to keeping Toronto competitive for business by keeping commercial and property taxes low, cutting red tape and investing in transportation to keep traffic moving.

Fact check: The city has created somewhere between 15,700 and 65,600 jobs since the Fords came to office, depending on the way the data is collected, according to the city’s economic development department.

The unemployment rate in the city has been around 10 per cent for most of ’s four years in office, according to the same department. A dip to 7 per cent in August 2013 now appears to have been “an anomaly,” the city’s manager of economic research Peter Viducis said.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com